“Better to Reign Online than Serve Offline”: Paradise Lost and the Paradox of Modern Freedom
We live in a world that worships freedom — freedom of expression, identity, choice, and truth. But beneath the banners of liberation, something stranger is happening: the very pursuit of freedom has birthed new systems of control, conformity, and surveillance . John Milton saw this long before us. In Paradise Lost (1667), he wrote not just about angels and demons, but about the human condition under freedom — the way rebellion can become its own religion, and the way the search for knowledge can turn into self-destruction. Today’s young generation embodies that paradox: defiant yet dependent, liberated yet constantly watched. We are the heirs of both Satan’s rebellion and Eve’s awakening — brilliant, restless, and entangled in our own networks of control. The Rebellion Illusion Satan’s defiance of Heaven begins as idealism — the refusal to kneel, the yearning for autonomy. But Milton shows how quickly rebellion becomes hierarchy, purity, and obsession. Sound familiar? Modern cult...